Netronic is a German company specializing in the development of production planning add-ons for Dynamics NAV/Business Central since 2013. Whether you aim to improve delivery punctuality, better manage production orders reserved for specific sales orders, or enhance efficiency, Netronic offers solutions tailored to your needs.
One of the most commonly chosen products is VPS – Visual Production Scheduler, enabling users to significantly improve delivery punctuality, enhance transparency on the production floor, and quickly identify bottlenecks.
VPS is a visual “drag-and-drop” interface for the standard production module in Dynamics 365 Business Central. It allows working with the results of the standard material requirements planning (MRP) process in Business Central, while adding a Gantt chart. With it, you can easily view the production schedule according to orders, operations, items, and material requirements, along with their constraints and capacities.
What are the benefits of visual production planning include?
- Control over the production floor thanks to better transparency
Reduce the time spent searching for information across all Business Central tables – VPS consolidates them into one planning table.
Gain visual production planning and resource utilization in one place. Check both the lead time for production orders and the sequence of operations on machines.
Bottlenecks, conflicts, and dependencies are immediately captured.
Regain control over your plan – even in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
- Prevention of “fires” through greater control
You regain control over your plan (and are no longer thrown off balance by “firefighting” and splitting your attention between two matters). You no longer have to constantly juggle current orders; instead, actively manage your plan and production.
VPS is fully integrated with Dynamics 365 Business Central. This means you don’t have to worry about errors that may occur when transferring data from the ERP system to another planning solution.
Focus on what matters – clearly marked visual alerts on the planning board.
- Making better and faster planning-related decisions
Identify bottlenecks more quickly.
Optimize resource utilization.
Provide customers with more accurate delivery time information.
Consistently meet deadlines.
Make better decisions with a tool that allows you to focus on the task at hand.
How does VPS work?
The Visual Production Scheduler (VPS) is a fully integrated extension with the production module of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. An interactive planning board visualizes production orders, production order lines, routing lines of production orders, work centers, machine centers, production capacities, and shift calendars.
- Full integration with Dynamics 365 Business Central
VPS has been fully integrated with Dynamics 365 Business Central as a page utilizing the client extension structure. This integration enables seamless collaboration, for example, double-clicking on production orders opens the production order card, while double-clicking on a work center opens the production work center card. All changes made in VPS can be directly saved to production orders.
- Spontaneous changes through drag-and-drop
Move operation positions with simple mouse actions – horizontally to modify start and end dates, or vertically to modify assignments to different work centers or machine centers.
- Visual decision support in real-time
The visual production schedule is not just an interactive Gantt chart. In addition to the temporal position of production orders and their assignment to resources, it also displays resource loads. In the event of moving a production order exceeding the capacity of a work center/machine, a visual warning will be displayed, enabling an immediate reaction. This way, you can control dates and capacities at any time!
- Transparency through visualization I – View of Production Orders
The Production Order view allows for quickly reviewing all production orders. It mainly answers the question “Will I be ready on time?” and displays visual warnings for delayed production orders. It also shows dependencies between production orders (if working with reservations). The Production Order view is grouped by the status of the production order and allows for easy filtering.
- Transparency through visualization II – Work Center Capacity View
The Work Center Capacity View is grouped by work center groups and work centers. It mainly answers the question “How are my machines/resources being utilized?” and displays visual warnings for overloads. You can also utilize the load curve (histogram) to monitor the overall utilization of the work center group and display this information by day, week, or month. You can easily use filters in the Work Center Capacity View.
The company Netronic offers two different applications for visual production planning for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: Visual Production Scheduler (VPS) and Visual Advanced Production Scheduler (VAPS). We provide a detailed video showing what both applications have in common, as well as what differentiates them and why. The video begins with planning production orders exclusively through Business Central – without visual extension of the schedule. Then, it demonstrates the capabilities of the drag-and-drop visual schedule (VPS) before adding more planning options, such as finite capacity planning (VAPS).
